1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image processing system such as a photograph finishing system and a computer-readable recording medium, and more specifically to an image processing system which automatically generates photographic print by obtaining print ordering information recorded as digital data in a FD, an MO disc, a Zip disc, or the like, and to a computer-readable recording medium wherein the ordering information is recorded.
2. Description of the Related Art
Photographic print ordering has been carried out conventionally by filling an order sheet with the name and address of an orderer, the frame number of a photograph to be printed, the quantity and the size of the print, and the like.
Following the recent digitization in the field of photographic services, it is becoming possible to order printing by recording image data read from a film and digitized thereafter in a recording medium such as an MO disc, a Zip disc, or a CD-R, instead of bringing a film. Alternatively, a method has been proposed wherein image data are registered in a server computer of a service provider in advance and printing order is placed without exchanging a recording medium.
Following this change, it has been proposed that ordering information, which has been handed from a customer to a service provider in the form of an order sheet, is handed as digital data.
Upon ordering a photograph, there is a general need that the content of the order is saved as history. This is because it saves time to refer to the content of a past order when a customer wishes to place an order again in the same content as before. Furthermore, an overlapping order due to poor memory is also avoidable by saving history.
When an order is placed by filling an order sheet, it is possible to save the history of how many times and which photograph has been ordered for additional printing by saving the copy of the order sheet. However, when the ordering information is handed as digital data, the ordering information recorded in a recording medium is automatically processed in a laboratory. Therefore, if ordering information generated in the past is left in the recording medium, the ordering information may be processed again regardless of the fact that it has already been processed. It is thus necessary to delete the past ordering information in order to securely avoid repeated processing. In other words, it has not been possible to save history of orders unless ordering information is intentionally managed by copying it on paper or transferring it to another medium, for example.
However, when an order sheet is saved, a film and the order sheet regarding photographs in the film are generally saved together. Likewise, in the case of digital data, a customer generally wishes to manage a recording medium wherein image data are stored together with order history regarding the image data stored in the recording medium. Especially, in the case where image data and ordering information are recorded together in a recording medium and a printing order is placed thereby, it is preferable for the ordering information to be saved as it is in the recording medium as history information.
Based on consideration of the problems described above, an object of the present invention is to realize easy management of order history, confirmation of the content of orders in the past as easily as in the case of an order using an order sheet, and generation of new ordering information by using the past order content.
To achieve the above object, the present invention records in a recording medium validity information showing whether an order file describing the content of an order such as a print size and the quantity is valid or invalid, that is, whether or not the order file should be processed by a laboratory, as a portion of the order file or data other than the order file, and this validity information used in an image processing system processes only valid order files.
In this manner, a past order file is not processed by a laboratory if the validity information therefor is invalid, even when the order file has been left in a recording medium, and the content of the order is saved as history in the recording medium.
In other words, the image processing system of the present invention comprises ordering information obtaining means which obtains ordering information by reading a recording medium wherein the ordering information which instructs generation of photographic print has been recorded as digital data in a predetermined format, and print generating means which carries out processing for generating the photographic print according to the ordering information obtained by the ordering information obtaining means, and the ordering information comprises at least one order file describing the content of an order and validity information for each order file showing whether or not the order file is valid. The order information obtaining means obtains only a valid order file whose validity information is valid upon reading the recording medium.
The recording medium herein referred to means a FD, a Zip disc, an MO disc or the like. The ordering information obtaining means means a personal computer comprising a medium drive for reading such a recording medium and an ordering information obtaining program operating on the personal computer, for example.
In the image processing system of the present invention, it is preferable that the ordering information obtaining means obtains only the order files whose validity information is valid and changes the validity information from valid to invalid upon reading the recording medium.
The validity information is changed from valid to invalid, because once the image processing system has processed an order file, the order file no longer needs to be processed, that is, the order file becomes an invalid file. The timing of the validity information change may be immediately after the ordering information has been taken in. Alternatively, the validity information may be changed after all image data to be printed have been transferred to the print generating means according to order processing.
Generation of the ordering information and recording thereof into a recording medium is carried out by a user by using order processing application software operating on a personal computer. The order processing application software can easily carry out processing such as specification of image data to be printed, or input of the quantity and the size of the print of the image data on a predetermined screen. This software organizes the information having been input by the user on the screen into digital data in a predetermined format, and records it in a recording medium. By such software running on the personal computer, the validity information is set as a portion of the ordering information automatically or according to an instruction by the user.
When an order file is newly generated, it is preferable for the validity information regarding the order file to be automatically set to valid. As has been described above, this validity information may be changed to invalid at the time of completion of the processing by the image processing system of the present invention.
Meanwhile, in order to reuse an order file having been used and processed in the past, a user may want to change the validity information setting from invalid to valid. In this case, the user intentionally changes the validity information from invalid to valid by using a function of the above software. Alternatively, a user can change validity information from valid to invalid by using this function, in the case where an order file has been generated but the user wants to postpone the processing thereof, for example.
The image processing system of the present invention generates print by automatically judging an order file to be processed by obtaining only the order files whose validity information, which shows whether the order file describing the content of the order is valid or invalid, is valid. For this reason, an order file having been processed will not be processed by mistake, even when an order is placed by an order file to be used for the order coexisting in a recording medium with an order file having been processed. Therefore, a past order file can be saved as it is in an order placing recording medium, and the history of orders is easily managed by the recording medium.
Furthermore, when this image processing system has processed a valid order file, it automatically changes the validity information showing the validity of the order file from valid to invalid. Therefore, a user will not need to operate the validity information intentionally without a special reason.